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By MELODY JAMESON
mj@observernews.net
Ruskin – A proposed new fire station here has re-ignited a firestorm of protest.
It is not the new facility itself, however, that has again aroused opposition from such diverse corners of the community as an education administrator, a clergyman and a building contractor. It is the proposed location and the dollar expenditure for that site now being called an “outrageous” use of taxpayer money and “betrayal” by county leaders.
The source of their strongly-expressed views is proposed construction of the new facility on about two acres at the northeast corner of 4th Street and East College Avenue, across the side street from the former Lewers Funeral Home, now a National Cremation and Burial Society property. The site also is a short distance from the Ruskin Elementary School campus on the south side of East College at U.S. 41.
Hillsborough County acquired the acreage in four parcels for a total of $700,000, closing the sales transactions with two sellers on March 27, 2008. The deals were sealed a few weeks after a February, 2008, community meeting in which concerns about safety, noise and general disturbance were voiced by opponents.
The county currently is soliciting construction bids for the 9,000- square-foot structure with three large fire vehicle bays facing East College Avenue. The facility, with a “Florida Cracker” façade and able to accommodate a typical round-the-clock crew of five and three emergency response vehicles, is estimated to cost in the $1.6 million neighborhood when completed and furnished.
And it is not a subject of disinterest. Major Ron Hartley, commander of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office District IV encompassing the South County, said the HCSO takes no position on siting the proposed station. But, he added, he has received more calls about the proposed fire station than about any other community issue in recent memory.
It is not the new fire station itself that worries Vince Thompson, the now-retired principal of East Bay High School who also opened Riverview High School as its first principal. It is location of an emergency services facility so close to a crowded school and the tax dollars spent to put it there that bother Thompson.
“I can’t image, just can’t imagine, a responding fire truck plunging onto S.R. 674 (College Avenue) with the 75 or 100 vehicles stacked up in front of and beside the school two times a day, waiting to release or pick up students,” he said. It’s a potentially “dangerous” situation fraught with elements of uncontrollability, the retired administrator added. The funeral home, immediately to the west, for example, has some degree of control over scheduling services, he noted, but the fire department, by contrast, has no control over when a crew must spring into action to respond to an emergency. Similarly, the school can exercise some control over student movement but the fire department cannot keep its trucks stationary when their services are needed.
Another issue for Thompson is the $700,000 – or $350,000 per acre – paid by Hillsborough taxpayers for the two-acre commercial site. Thompson, a St. John the Divine church member, noted that when his church placed their seven-acre campus a few blocks east on College Avenue on the market during the same timeframe the fire station site was on the market, the church was “unable to get anywhere near that amount per acre.” The church subsequently has taken its Ruskin campus off the market and is continuing operations there along with the new church campus in Sun City Center, he added.
“Someone needs to take a hard, hard look” at the present fire station plans in Ruskin, Thompson summed up, “and county commissioners definitely should be listening.”
That’s a sentiment Ron Budd, long time Ruskin businessman and building contractor, echoed emphatically. Budd, who consistently has strongly opposed location of the new fire station on the East College Avenue site, now considers the fire department plans a “betrayal of the peoples’ trust,” most specifically by county commissioners “like Rose Ferlita” who have not intervened on behalf of their constituents. Ferlita’s commission district includes the east side of Tampa Bay and Ruskin.
Budd’s objections to the fire station siting are based on the safety of elementary school students, along with their waiting parents queuing up along East College and on U.S. 41, on the safety of drivers along East College and on the noise of sirens day or night, particularly interrupting funeral home services, he reiterated this week. Then, there’s the cost of that land, he added.
“I have absolutely no disagreement with a new fire station,” Budd said, “but it simply should go somewhere else. Good sense should tell us that putting school kids, cars idling on the street and drivers trying to get from Point A to Point B at risk every weekday is wrong. It’s just plain wrong!”
What’s more, the businessman continued, “there have been alternatives.” Budd said he sees the price paid for the two acres as “an outrageous waste of tax money. Nearly three quarters of a million dollars for property that was on the market for many, many months; that no one but the county could be suckered into buying!” he said. “It smells; the whole deal smells!” he added, especially when “there were other parcels available at the time.”
Budd indicated he has spoken to several county commissioners about what he considers “the mess made in Ruskin” and plans to speak this week with States Attorney Mark Ober about any criminal implications in the dealings.
The Rev. Don Tanner, pastor of the Ruskin Church of God located about three blocks west of the proposed fire station, agreed that the price paid for that land at that location “seems to be a high price.”
But, Tanner added, his greatest concern is interruption with harsh sirens and without any warning of the solemn services conducted in a funeral home for the living. Intruding so harshly on the privacy of people in the midst of grieving over the loss of a child or of a parent or of any loved one is not acceptable, he said.
These same concerns were voiced pointedly two years ago when the fire station site was being discussed, Tanner noted, adding “it seems they (decision-makers) were not listening.”
A new station, regardless of where built, will replace the existing Ruskin fire house on lst Avenue, a block south of Shell Point Road and east of U.S. 41. The current facility rests on ground known to be geologically unstable and unsuited for housing the heavy firefighting equipment.
© 2010 Melody Jameson
What follows is a public comments section. This is not from the Observer News staff - it comes from other people and contains their opinions and theirs alone. The Observer News does not control the material that follows. We do, however, reserve the right to remove objectionable material at our discretion. By that we mean that we will edit or delete any content that we deem is inappropriate. By posting your comments, you are stating that you agree to these terms.
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Comments
Ron Budd
21 Jan 2010, 18:58
Cavedog: Yes, it is the same Ron Budd. If you would like more information, E-Mail me at RBudd36@yahoo.com
Ron Budd
21 Jan 2010, 18:57
Cavedog: Yes, it is the same Ron Budd. If you would like more information, E-Mail me at RBudd36@yahoo.com
Cavedog
20 Jan 2010, 15:50
Is this the same Ron Budd that went to prison for ten years in 1972 for his part in the Shoup Voting Machine Scandal when he was the Elections Board Chairman?
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